
THEE 



MARYELLOUS 



IN 



~NL oderii Times, 



BY 



LEWIS H. STEINER, M, D, 



CHAMBERSBURG, PA: 

M. KIEFFER ft CO'S. CALORIC PRINTING PRESS. 
1860. 



THE 



MARVELLOUS 



IN 



Modern Times, 



BY 



LEWIS H. STEINER, M, D. 



CHAMBERSBTTRG, PA: 

a. KIEFFER & CO'S. CALORIC PRINTING PEES 
186& 






12. 







Histoire du Merveilleux dans les Temps Modernes, par Louis Figuier. Tome 
premier (Les Diables de Loudun, Les Convulsionaires Jansenistes), — Tome 
deuxieme (La Baguette divinatoirc, Les Prophetes protestants). 

We are not of those who reject every marvel simply be- 
cause it seems to have occurred in direct contravention of 
the laws of nature. There is really an extreme of incredu- 
lity as well as of credulity in the world, — one manifested by 
those who reject every thing they cannot understand, and 
the other by those who hail with delight all that is myste- 
rious and obscure, reject the proper modes of testing its 
claims on our belief, and live a life of servile dependence 
on the creations of their own or their neighbor's fancies. 
There is a singular fact, connected with these extremes, il- 
lustrating the old proverb " that extremes meet," — a spirit 
of irreligion, or rather a want of true religious faith, seems 
to pervade both the extremely credulous and the willfully 
incredulous. Thus we find these two classes rarely properly 
represented among humble, faithful, God-fearing Chris- 
tians. These are willing to recognize the wonders of an 
Almighty hand in the pages of history, whether blood- 
stained by the records of battles or adorned with the tri- 
umphs of inventive peace, — those dispute the existence of 
every thing that is not plainly the result of known physical 
laws : or these reject all demonstrations of natural phe- 
nomena which are claimed to be produced by spiritual 
means as lying wonders calculated to bewilder the mind 
and lead the soul from the wholesome ways of truth, — 
while those, too proud to be humble Christians, and anx- 
ious for some new revelation, hail all the miserable tricks 
of charlatans as so many indications of spiritual communi- 
cation and interference, and allow themselves to be blind- 
ed by their conceit until all the security, afforded by the 
sheet-anchors of reason and faith, being lost, they drift out 
into the illimitable ocean of ignorance and superstition. 



The Christian does not feel himself obliged to believe 
every thing his senses report to his brain, if such reports 
involve a contradiction of the laws of nature, and are mani- 
festly not intended to communicate anv great fact or won- 
drous message from the Creator ; and, on the other hand, 
he does not feel called upon to explain the cause — the 
trickery it may be — of the mysterious phenomenon. Where 
pretended revelations from the spiritual world attack the 
truth of Holy Scripture, the teachings of the Church, and 
the experience of the saints of all ages, it is a matter of 
small importance, whether the Devil and his wicked spirits 
be considered mediately or immediately concerned. It is not 
worth the time consumed in the discussion, to determine 
whether the powers of the lower world have acted upon 
the hearts of men so as to make them conscious deceivers 
of their fellow men. The main point for the Christian to 
keep in view, in these cases, is, that, whatever attacks di- 
rectly a part of his Christian faith, must be thrust aside as 
dangerous and even deadly in its tendency. If he do this, 
he may be called illiberal, unprogressive and superstitious, 
but he will keep in the true path and will be justly entitled 
to none of these stigmas. 

On the other hand, it is not unchristian to believe in 
"the continuance of apostolic gifts." Dr. Bushnell has well 
..aid,* on this subject, "there are yet, in every age, great 
numbers of godly souls, and especially in the lower ranges 
of life, to whom the conventionalities of opinion are noth- 
ing, and the walk with God every thing, who dare to claim 
an open state with Him ; to pray with the same expecta- 
tion, and to speak of faith in the same manner, as if they 
had lived in the apostolic times. And they are not the 
noisy, violent class, who delight in the bodily exercises 
that profit little, mistaking the fumes of passion for the 
revelations of God, but they are, for the most part, such 
as walk in silence, and dwell in the shades of obscurity." 

Via media is always the most difficult path to discover, 



*Nature and Supernatural, 490. 



but it is the safest, nay the only safe path for the traveller. 
JSTo labor, or care, is too great which may lead to its dis- 
covery. We must steer clear from those who solely believe 
in the every day natural phenomena of life, as well as those 
who delight in the glitter of novelties. Both will have a 
host of followers. Mankind is not only prone to disbelief, 
but also paradoxical as it may seem, to adopt novelties. 

" Whate'er absurdity the brains 
May hatch, yet it ne'er wants wet-nurses to suckle it : 
Or dry ones, like a hen, to take the pains 
To lead the nudity abroad, and chuckle it ; 
No whim so stupid but some fool will buckle it 
To jingle bell-like on his empty head; 
No mental mud — but some will knead and knuckle it, 
And fancy they are making fancy bread." 

The History of the Marvellous in Modern Times is 
fraught with interest to the student. It shows how prone 
man is to run after novelties, to desert old paths, and how 
epidemic the belief in wonders may be at certain periods 
in the world's history. "Whole countries have been over 
run with strange delusions seizing the wisest as well as the 
most ignorant, and fanaticism, laughing reason to scorn, 
has reigned triumphant over all. To collect clear and im- 
partial accounts of some of these in modern times has been 
the self-consigned task of the sprightly Figuier, and two 
volumes have already appeared as the half of his contribu- 
tion to the literature of this subject. He promises addi- 
tional volumes on Animal Magnetism, Table-rappings and 
quasi-Spiritual communications. We doubt whether the 
world is yet prepared to discuss these, but when his vol- 
umes appear, if other engagements do not claim our pen, 
we hope to make them subjects of other papers for the 
consideration of the readers of the Eeview. For the pres- 
ent, we purpose noticing the two volumes, which have al- 
ready appeared, full of much that is interesting, novel and 
instructive to those who will tear off the covering to read 
the concealed moral. The past is pregnant with that 
which may be made instructive to the present, if we will 
but labor to understand it. 

Figuier, looking upon the pretended marvellous manifes- 



6 

tations of the present as the necessary and almost inevita- 
ble development of similar phenomena in past ages, is 
somewhat skeptical, but his facts are always reliable. He 
considers that " the marvellous is food so necessary to the 
human mind, that, among all people and in all ages, there 
has existed a belief in extraordinary things and an admis- 
sion of the existence of supernal facts. The harmony of 
the phenomena of the world, the order of nature and the 
constant regularity with which its laws are exhibited, can 
not satisfy this passion for wonder." The priests of India, — 
the brahmins of the first rank — proceeding from the brain 
of Brahma, were supposed to be the proper media for 
the communications of man with the divinity. Zoroaster 
formed the spiritual and material world out of an univer- 
sal fluid, which was the actual substance of divinity. From 
this, it was an easy matter, to form minor deities and to 
create prodigies. The Pythoness, seated on the tripod, in- 
haling exhalations from the earth, fell into convulsions and 
uttered words which were interpreted by her attendants as 
prophetic communications. The pages of classic history 
are full of wonders of this kind, showing that the Greeks 
and Romans were ever ready to believe in something high- 
er and more powerful than the merely human. As we 
approach the Christian Era the curious legend of Epithases 
meets our eyes ; while becalmed near the isles of the 
^Egean Sea, a mysterious voice calls on Thamas, the pilot, 
and orders him to cry out with a loud voice, when the 
vessel should arrive at a certain position, that great Pan 
was dead. Thamas having obeyed this order, the air was 
filled with groanings and lamentations. Whether this is 
entitled to credence, or is merely a poetic mode of express- 
ing the opening of the period when the overthrow of pa- 
ganism was to be accomplished, and the reign of true mir- 
acles was to be established, — it is foreign from our design 
to discuss now. 

Shortly after the beginning of the Christian Era, prodi- 
gies arc attributed to the wonderful supernatural power of 
magicians and soothsayers, which far exceed those said to 



have been produced in the more distinctly pagan days of 
Eoman history. Simon of Samaria was thought, by the 
enemies of the Christians, to be the special envoy of the 
ancient divinities with full authority to demonstrate their 
powers and might, — by the Christians he was considered 
as being favored by demoniacal aid. All his acts, seen 
through the dim corridors of the past, assume a miraculous 
character. He is said to have created statues that moved 
boldly before wondering crowds, and to have remained 
sound and uninjured amid the flames of a funeral pile. 
Contemporaneous with this juggler, was Apollonius of 
Thyanes, who lived to the age of one hundred and thirty 
years. He possessed the power of transporting himself 
at will from one place to another, of converting himself in- 
to various objects like the fabled Proteus, and of evoking 
" spirits from the vasty deep." At Ephesus, when the 
plague was depopulating the city, he attributed the cause 
to an evil spirit they were harboring within the walls. An 
old beggar was seized upon as this evil spirit. Being 
stoned to death, instead of the body of a man a carcass of 
a dog was found, which being interred the plague ceas- 
ed. In these days sorcerers and magicians became so nu- 
merous that " the poets complain of them as a scourge, and 
edicts of expulsion were issued on several occasions by the 
emperors." Tacitus relates that the opportunity was also 
employed to rid the city, at the same time, of the philoso- 
phers. 

They were followed by men who worked in accordance 
with their formulae, but without a tithe of their talents or 
skill. The very edicts of banishment gained them parti- 
sans. Mankind is always disposed to array itself on the 
side of the apparently persecuted. Christian rites and cer- 
emonies, not understood, were mingled with pagan cere- 
monies, and a mongrel magical art was the result which 
increased with the lapse of time, till saints, angels and 
archangels were invoked to aid in the most questionable 
investigations and pursuits. The psalms were employed as 
an important part of the ritual of the magicians. The 



8 

disease gained its height in the middle ages, and we turn 
over the pages, written by its followers, with an astonish- 
ment that knows not whether to express itself in smiles or 
tears. A collection of forty chief treatises, on Magic and 
allied subjects, written in the middle ages and published 
under the title of Schcitze aus Kloster-Bibliotheken, has come 
into our possession, and we think it incomparably the 
greatest farrago of nonsense we have ever met. Hebrew, 
Chaldaic and meaningless words are strung together, like 
beads on a string, — and supposed, when cited in due order, 
to be all powerful in bringing forth familiar spirits.* 

But we cannot follow the history of magic with any 
closeness, — the whims, conceits, follies and supposed de- 
moniac possessions of ages nearer the present demand our 
attention. Demoniacal possession being a fact in the ear- 
ly portion of the Christian era, when the period of divis- 
ion and schism had arrived, this charge proved a powerful 
weapon in the fratricidal wars that were constantly taking 
place. The Church distinguished between those who had 
voluntarily signed the contract with the Evil One, and 
those who were affected through the vile arts of sorcery. 
It was supposed there were those, like Faust, who would 
peril their soul's salvation for the power of commanding 
the powers of the earth, air and sea. These were subject- 
ed to death in ail the forms that an ingenious cruelty 
could command. The Church had a special rite for exor- 



*A spirit is thus invoked, who was supposed to have charge of hidden treas- 
ure : Audi, audi spiritus obstinax, qui Thesaurum sub hac terra, unde ista 
portio desumpta est, latentem custodis, aut possides. Adonay, Sabbaoth, 
Cadas, adonay, ammara, alii, adoy, Sabbaoth, ammara, collniziara, offina, 
altennedera, fuffa, Menfent, Bengraf, haraasixin, ula, ula, coraf. Jasuren, 
omasixel, sehani, eissoas, leroas, Ilasiedin, hasiedinomdin, lafonaff, Kaslah, 
laugna, bosuras, chaphirh, chaphirach, hand, Kopa, heogunh, Scheuschen, 
togas, togos, hage, Phanim, debugim, menaihuh, menaihuch, Schegamhim, 
&c., &C, &., &c. Veni, compare, et affer statim Thesaurum petitum modo 
hbi, tuisque praescripto hiolooi, etsatisfao petitioni meae in omnibus ad 
amussim ocyus. Letamnim, letaglogo, letasynin, tebaganaritin, letarminim, 
letagelogin, letaf'alosin, Amen. Will the reader only think of 718 pages done 
up in tbat style ! 

Bohatze aus Kloster-bibliotheken, 548. 



9 

cising a demon who had become incarnate in the body of 
a man. After mass, the person, having previously fasted, 
the demon was ordered to make a certain sign in the name* 
of Christ. If this was made, the fact of possession was es- 
tablished, and the rites of exorcism were proceeded with. 

In 1436, in the environs of Berne and Lausanne, a class 
of men arose who devoured human flesh, even eating their 
own children, pretending that these foul deeds were done 
in accordance with the command of Satan. Hundreds of 
individuals, suspected of these crimes were exposed to tor- 
ture and acknowledged them.* In 1459 the mania of sor- 
cery seized Artois, and those apprehended by the ecclesi- 
astical authorities admitted attendance on nocturnal meet- 
ings, where the filthiest orgies were performed. In 1484, 
Innocent VIII. issued a bull against those who practiced 
the arts of sorcery in the regions of Cologne, Mayence, 
Treves and Salzburg. Among those arrested in this region 
many confessed the crime of anthropophagy, being impell- 
ed thereto by "un instinct diaboliqne." One sage-femme, who 
was burned at Dann, in the diocese of Basle, confessed that 
she had destroyed more than forty infants. It is a ques- 
tion whether any of the accused were really guilty of an- 
thropophagy, or had merely pretended the performance of 
the act, under the influence of an epidemic mania. 

In the Sixteenth century, the juridical horrors were the 
same as in the Fifteenth. Over thirty thousand victims 
w 7 ere made to suffer for the crime of heresy in the reign of 
Philip II. of Spain, and many were burned alive at Cala- 
horra, being accused of sorcery. In Italy appeared the 
Stryges, sorceresses, who claimed that, by mentally invok- 
ing the power of a demon and by virtue of some sacramen- 

* J'ai appartenu, disait 1' un d' eux, ainsi que ma femme, a la corporation 
des sorciers ; j'ai renonce aux graces du bapteme, a la foi chretienne, a 1'ad- 
oration du Christ. J'ai pris l'engagement de flechir le genou devant le mai- 
tre de l'enfer ; j'ai bu du sue extrait de la chair d'enfant, sue que les adora- 
teurs de Satan conservent precieusement dans des outres ; ce breuvage pro- 
cure un savoir qui n'appartient qu'aux inities. 

Hist, du Marv. I. 39. 



10 

tal words, they could transform themselves into cats. In 
the shape of the latter they pretended that they could enter, 
through windows and other openings, rooms where infants 
were exposed, and then extract their blood through punc- 
tures made for the purpose. In 1521, Zoanthropia assum* 
ed another form in the mountains of the Jura. It was 
pretended that men assumed the form of wolves, and de- 
voured women and little children. Three men, Pierre 
Burgot, Michel Verdung and Philibert Montot, charged 
with being were-wolves (loups-garoas), were burned alive, 
and their portraits were suspended in the church at Polig- 
ny. In 1522, the convents of Holland, Germany and Ita- 
ly became objects of attraction trom the singular forms 
which hysteria assumed in the nuns. Exorcisms were 
resorted to, and where these would not quiet the nervous 
irregularities, severer penalties were adopted. From many 
of the symptoms reported we can have no difficulty in 
guessing at the cause of the hysteria, but medical disquisi- 
tions are prohibited in the pages of the Review. 

The mother of the great Kepler was charged with the 
practice of magic and barely escaped being burned alive. 
Her son deemed it his duty to protect his mother from the 
charge, although he did not deny the reality and power of 
sorcery. Indeed the seventeenth century abounded in 
instances of men and women, who were subjected to severe 
tortures, and even death, on account of complicity with 
the powers of the lower regions. Fire was the catholicon 
supposed to be alone efficient in such dire cases, and its 
purifying agency was invoked in the most absolute way 
imaginable. 

Figuier gives, at full length, an account of the demon- 
mania which prevailed, about the year 1G32, in an Ursuline 
Convent, composed of the daughters of the nobility and 
established at Loudun, a little village in the diocese of 
Poitiers. At first, the nuns were said to leave their beds 
at nights, and to crawl over the roofs as somnambulists, 
thence descending to the chambers of the boarders. Com- 
plaint was made that they were beset by spectres at night, 



11 

and that blows had been received, the marks of which remain- 
ed. The priest, attached to the establishment, Mignon, con- 
cluded that the symptoms justified the idea of possession dia- 
bolique. The advice of a neighboring priest, who was con- 
tinually employed in hunting out demoniacs, being obtain- 
ed, he began to exorcise the superior and two of the nuns. 
The condition of affairs in the convent was soon made 
public, and the two zealous priests deemed it proper to re- 
port to the Judge and Civil Lieutenant of the village. As 
soon as they reached the convent, they were informed by 
Barre, the Exorcist, that he had driven the demons out of 
the Superior and one of the Sisters, and that one was named 
Astaroth, and the other Sabulon. It seems, however, that 
the exorcism wasn't very efficient, as the Superior was 
seized with convulsions at this visit. The sorcerer, charged 
with the foul work, was Urbain Grandier, a priest. The de- 
mon was publicly interrogated in Latin, and answers were 
returned in the. same tongue*, — but when the demon, pos- 
sessing a lay sister (who did not understand Latin), was 
interrogated no answer could be obtained. The Civil Lien- 
tenant wished to know whether the possessed had any diffi- 
culty with Grandier, but the priest would not allow, what 
he called, " indiscreet questions." 

On investigation, after leaving the convent, the civil au- 
thorities found that the same series of questions had previ- 
ously, on several occasions, been proposed to the supposed 
demon who inhabited the Superior's body. They demand- 
ed that all further exorcisms should be performed in con- 
junction with exorcists appointed by civil authorities, Mig- 
non simply asserted that they had not objected to the pres- 
ence of the civil authorities; and Barre asserted that he 



* The following queries and answers are said to have been made by the 
exorcist and given by the demon, possessing the Superior. Q. Propter quam 
causam ingressus es in corpus hujus virginis ? A. Causa anirnositatis. Q. 
Per quod pactum ? A. Per flores. Q. Quales ? A. Rosas. Q. Quis misit? 
A. Urbanus. Q. Die cognomen? A. Grandier. Q. Die qualitatem ? A. 
Sacerdos. Q. Cujus ecclesise? A. Sancti Petri. Q. Quae persona attulit 
flores ? A. Diabolica. 



12 

had discovered, instead of one devil, Astaroth, tormenting 
the Superior, there were really seven, whose names he 
glibly recited. The history of the parte was as follows : 
" Urbain Grandier had delivered it, in the form of a bouquet 
of roses, to a certain Jean Pivart — a magician of an inferior 
order — ; this Pivart gave it to a young girl, who had 
thrown it over the garden wall into the convent." The 
authorities demanded that they should be allowed to see 
the possessed. But the energumens exhibited then neith- 
er contortion nor grimace, and chanted quietly, along with 
the other sisters, during the celebration of the mass. On 
another occasion, however, the Superior was seized with 
convulsions, foaming at the mouth, and the demon, when 
asked at what time he would leave her, answered, eras mane. 
He resisted the litanies and even the power of the holy 
ciborium, when placed on the head of the possessed. 
Shortly after the Superior regained her natural condition 
and, smiling, said to Barre : 11 rCy a plus de Satan en mm. 
A circumstance is related here that was very common in 
demonopathia, the Superior, freed from this crisis, neither 
recollected the questions or answers. She pretended that 
at ten o'clock at night her hand had been seized and prick- 
ed, and that immediately afterwards she discovered three 
spines in it. 

A cat being found in the chamber, it was declared to be 
the demon, but the cat proved to be an old attache of the 
convent. A large bouquet of white roses was gathered in 
the garden, and was thrown into the fire by Barre with 
the hope of eliciting some preternatural phenomena, but 
they only burned in the natural way. Barre, however, 
pledged his faith as an exorcist that he would compel the 
devil to leave or to make manifest, in a most indubitable 
manner, the possession of the Ursulines. 

Let us see, for the clear understanding of this curious 
event in history, who was Urbain Grandier. He had been 
a student with the Jesuits at Bordeaux, afterwards care of 
the church of St. Peter at Loudun, and a prebend in the 
chapter of Sainte-Croix at the same place. This possess- 



13 

ion of two benefices irritated his brethren, — and, moreover, 
he was a good preacher, an easy and elegant writer, and a 
gallant, attractive gentleman. Charges had been brought 
against him involving his moral character in the most ab- 
solute way. A large number of persons figured as his ac- 
cusers, although they did not appear against him on trial. 
He was condemned to fast on bread and water for three 
months, interdicted a divinis for five years in the diocese of 
Poitier, and forever in the city of Loudun. Having ap- 
pealed to the parliament, of Paris, the whole affair was en- 
trusted to the Presidial of Poitiers. Here the sentence was 
reversed, and the archbishop of Bordeaux absolved him 
from the ecclesiastical penalty. Grandier used his triumph 
so as to annoy his enemies as much as possible, re-entered 
the city shaking a laurel branch as a token of his victory. 

His fame having penetrated the convent, associated with re- 
ports of his eloquence, and beauty, contests with and victory 
over his enemies, without doubt was the cause of his name 
being suggested to the poor nuns, in the height of their 
hysterical attacks, as the cause of the same. 

But to proceed with our epitome of this history, — Gran- 
dier demanded that the nuns be examined separately and 
by approved exorcists, who were at least not his open ene- 
mies. However, the exorcisms were carried on in church 
by the same Barre. The possessed always answered in 
Latin, indicative of bad grammatical training, and full of 
solecisms. In every- case, the name of Grandier was men- 
tioned as the magician. A series of contradictions having 
been from time to time detected in the communications of 
the quasi-possessed, the archbishop of Bordeaux sent his 
own physician to examine into the matter, but nothing 
being discovered by him, the prelate forbade the pretended 
exorcists from hereafter practising the art, and assigned 
its practice to two priests. ISTo more indications being 
found, in the convent, of demonopathia, Grandier was again 
triumphant. 

Such triumph could not last long, especially in an age 

when the really mysterious was being overlooked in the 



14 

Church, and mankind was on the alert for something that 
should claim its wonder. Despite the contradictory and 
improbable character of the testimony, he was at length 
condemned to death. The only proof was that arising 
from a persistance, on the part of the accused, in their accu- 
sation. Grandier was finally burned at the stake. His 
last words were : " Deus, Deus, ad te vigilo, miserere mei, 
Deus ! While the priest Lactance was lighting the fire, 
Grandier said — there is a God in heaven, who will be both 
thy judge and mine, — I summons thee to appear before 
him in one month. It is a singular fact, that Lactance 
died exactly one month from the death of Grandier, in 
frightful convulsions, as though he had been possessed of 
all the demons that he had been pursuing. 

The death of Grandier did not diminish the troubles in 
the nunnery. We sicken as we read the details of inci- 
dents, connected with demonopathia among these females, 
who had separated themselves from the world with the 
view of serving God, but who, on the contrary, were con- 
tributing to the support of the worst passions and feelings 
of their fellow men, by enabling them to denounce any 
troublesome person as a magician. " The mortal blow to 
the whole, was the withdrawal of the pension of four thou- 
sand livres per month, which the king had allowed for the 
support of the exorcists and the nuns. Richelieu began to 
believe that if it were continued longer, the farce would 
only serve to exhibit the injustice of the condemnation of 
Grandier ; * * his own death (Dec. 18, 1638) was the 
signal of the definitive flight of all the inferior demons that 
still swarmed about Loudun." The nuns, nevertheless, 
were the recipients of distinguished honors. "Jeanne de 
Belfiel — the mother superior — one of the principal actress- 
es in the troop, was the object of the greatest favors. Pre- 
sented at Court, she was complimented by the King and 
Queen, and honored by the benediction of the cardinal- 
minister, * * she lived for years, surrounded with an 
aureola of sanctity, and wanted nothing to prevent her can- 
onization after death." 



15 

Can modern science aid ns in comprehending this curious 
episode in the history of the seventeenth century ? Es- 
quirol considers all the phenomena, exhibited by the nuns, 
as symptoms of what he styles demonomania ; Bertrand 
claims that they were only phenomena of extacy. Figuier 
puts the whole matter very forcibly before his readers, as 
follows ; " The convulsions proceeded from hysteria, The 
disease was perfectly marked in three of them. We believe 
that it existed a priori in the convent, and that it caused 
the first convulsive and contagious symptoms, through 
imitation. But this affection, the nervous system being 
constantly irritated, gives rise to such a physiological con- 
dition, that every physical or moral excitement would bring 
this system into play, provoking disorders and extraordi- 
nary cries from the sick person. Indeed young hysterical 
girls are now considered marvellous subjects for magnetizers. 
The hysterical nuns thus became pliant tools, in their fits 
of somnambulism, in the hands of the zealous exorcists." 
They were to a certain extent moved at the suggestion of 
the latter, to adopt any ideas which might be presented. 
The name of Grandier had been associated with every thing 
calculated to bewilder and charm the young, for he had 
beauty, talent, wit and reputation. It was an easy matter 
to make one, who had allowed her mind to dwell upon 
him, to believe that he was the cause of the convulsions to 
which she was subject. Imitation would soon place others 
in the same position. The general belief in magic easily 
induced them to charge this, upon the gay and handsome 
young priest. These were the days, our readers will recol- 
lect, when ugly, old women were put out of the way, by 
first being charged with witchcraft and sorcery, and dash- 
ing youths were disposed of under the plea that they were 
magicians. The old proverb reminds us that " to give a 
dog a bad name is the sure method of destroying him," 
and we know that even a dog may be scared to death when 
a tin-pan is tied to his tail. We can destroy a man, either 
by exciting the public against him, or by so wounding his 
own sensibility that he shall shun the public eye. 



16 

"With the above mentioned causes inducing the belief that 
they were under some influence of Grandier, it is easy to 
perceive how the nuns would feign demoniacal possession. 
The latter gave them notoriety, — brought them prominent- 
ly before the community. This notoriety was too dear not 
be preserved at any price. Thus, the first wreng step hav- 
ing been taken, the path was comparatively an easy one 
through deceit, and lies innumerable. The devils of Loudun 
would be exorcized now, not by ecclesiastical butby medi- 
cal treatment, and their history would be a very short one. 

The fall of the Jansenists in 1720 had been accomplished, 
after protracted and vigorous efforts on the part of the Jesuits. 
The propositions of Quesnel had been the cause of much 
dissension, and ecclesiastic quarrels had become a disgrace 
to the Church. At this time of defeat and overthrow of 
the Jansenists, they began to exhibit miraculous phenomena 
as a "protest against their overthrow and with the view of 
showing the world, that Providence did not approve of 
the judgments pronounced on their cause by men." 
Shortly before this period, James II, of England, found his 
greatest consolation in exile, at Saint Germain, in touching 
those afflicted with scrofula. The king's touch was sup- 
posed to be endowed with miraculous healing properties. 
After his death, the Jesuit fathers claimed for his tomb 
still more wonderful properties. " The sainted monarch, 
says Salgues, did not confine himself to curing the King's 
evil ; he made the lame to walk, gave suppleness to the 
limbs of the gouty, corrected defective vision and untied the 
tongues of stammerers and mutes." 

It was necessary that the Jansenists should show some 
signs as wonderful as those exhibited at the monarch's 
grave. Vialart, archbishop of Chalons sur Marne, had 
exhibited great piety conjoined with gentle tolerance dur- 
ing his life, had opposed the persecution of protestants, and 
the stigma thrown on the character of Jansenius by the 
charge of heresy. At his grave, rheumatisms, diseases of 
the skin and ulcers were relieved almost instantly. In- 
vestigations being had, the following results wereannounc- 



17 

ed by the examining physicians in the case of thirty four 
miracles reported,— twenty two were explainable from causes 
purely physical, eleven were probably supernatural, and 
one necessarily so. 

But the reputation of these was overshadowed by tbat of 
the Abbe Francis of Paris, more familiarly known as Dea- 
con Paris. He had lived a life of extreme religious morti- 
fication, which was terminated by death, May 1, 1727. 
His remains were interred in the cemetery of Saint Medard, 
and the grave became the scene of some of the most as- 
tonishing performances ever executed by religious fanatic- 
ism. The first cure was alleged to have been performed in 
the case of an old-clothes-man, Pierre Lero, who had been 
suffering from indolent ulcers on his left leg, which had 
resisted all the treatment of his barber-surgeon Tanson. 
He was carried to the grave, gave twelve sous to a good 
woman to perform a neuvaine (nine days devotion) for him, 
twelve to a sacristan to have a mass said. In addition he 
obtained a piece of the bed of the deacon which he applied 
to the leg and kept himself quiet On the tenth day, he was 
cured and the cure was considered a miracle performed by 
deacon Paris. This case was followed up by the cure of 
Marie Jeanne Orget, who for thirty years had been treated 
by physicians and surgeons for erysipelas. Being carried 
to the cemetery, she prayed the saint that she might not 
only be cured, but be supplied with strength to work for 
her support (she was then 57 years old). The relief was 
immediate, and she was able to leave the cemetery without 
assistance. It is true, that the recovery of this woman was 
seriously doubted by the Jesuit fathers, and that she had 
said nothing about the cause of it until obliged by her Jan- 
senist confessor, still at her last moments she repeated her 
belief in the presence of the notaries. 

These quasi miracles were nothing to what followed, 
when a tomb was erected over the remains of the deacon, 
around which were to be exhibited those wonderful con- 
vulsions and transports of prophetic delirium, which at- 
tracted the attention of all France and made the account of 

2 



18 

the " Convulsiomiaires Jansenistes" occupy a curious place 
in the history of the last century. After the erection of the 
tomb, the miracles, asserted to be effected by the effi- 
cacy of the saint, increased. A girl afflicted with par- 
alysis was cured, and other cases followed so rapidly, 
that Montgeron, published in three large quarto volumes, 
an account of the miracles operated through the inter- 
cession of the deacon. "The cemetery of Saint Medard, al- 
though all the soil and stones contained therein partook 
of the efficacy of the ashes of the deacon, became a theatre 
too small for the expansive nature of the work to be per- 
formed. It extended to other churches and cemeteries." 
The Jesuits availed themselves of the power of the govern- 
ment, and soon the Jansenists obtained the benefits which 
accrue from a vindictive persecution. 

Now began the famous convulsive movements, which 
always accompanied the cures of those who resorted to the 
mortuary shrine of the Abbe Francis of Paris. Our limits 
warn us that we can only furnish an account of one case, 
but ex uno disce ornnes. We cite the case of Marie- Anne 
Vassereau, who was laboring under a frightful aggregation 
of infirmities : swelling of the legs, resulting from badly 
treated small pox, paralysis, lachrymal fistula, caries of the 
nasal- bones &c, &c. " At first, the spirit of the saint made 
no remarkable demonstration. But as she heard mass, 
Dec. 1, 1731, her body was seized with tremblings ; she en- 
tered the cemetery and the tremblings increased ; she ap- 
proached the tomb and they became convulsions. On the 
next day the spirit of the saint acted still more strongly. 
Her head became confused, — her legs, arms and thighs 
were extraordinarily agitated. She*lost consciousness, but, 
being carried in the charnel-house (eharniers) and restora- 
tives being applied, she recovered. She returned home, 
but the convulsions attained such a character then, that the 
domestics and neighbors were required to hold her limbs. 
The convulsive movements accompanied her when she walk- 
ed out, so that passcrsby were obliged to prevent her from 
breaking her head or throwing herself in the river. The 



19 

days following exhibited similar scenes. She attained 
curious notoriety in the Faubourg of Saint-Jacques, and 
nothing was spoken of, save the convulsions of Marie- 
Anne Vassereau. Her nurses were deprived of all rest ; 
she fell in the pews, in the kitchen and wherever she went." 

Finally the relief came — . The denoument arrives, 

somewhat after the ridiculus-mus-order of the poet. 

" These convulsions were the signal that lighted up a 
new dance of Saint-Guy, resuscitated in Paris in the eigh- 
teenth century, with infinite variations, some more lugu- 
brious or buffoon-like than others. From all quarters of 
the city they ran to the cemetery of Saint-Medard, to par- 
ticipate in the shiverings, or crispations, and tremblings. 
Sick or not, each pretended to fall into convulsions, and 
had his own style of convulsions. It was a true tarentula- 
dance. * * The soil of the cemetery and the adjoining 
streets was an arena of contention for a multitude of girls, 
women and invalids of all ages, who zealously contended in 
convulsions. Men on the ground struggled in real epilepsy, 
and some swallowed pebbles, bits of glass and even live 
coals." The most indecent and filthy exhibitions were 
made by both sexes, and, in the name of religion, things 
were perpetrated which would not have been tolerated in 
the Saturnalia of pagan Rome. Certain of the convulsion- 
naires assumed positions representing some religious mys- 
teries, selecting especially scenes from the Passion. "In 
the midst of all this, nothing was heard but groaning, sing- 
ing, howling, hissing, declaiming, prophecying, and cat- 
erwauling. But what predominated in this convulsionary 
epidemic was the dance. The chorus was conducted by 
Abbe Becherand, an ecclesiastic, who stood, so that every 
one could see him, on the tomb of the saint. There he 
daily executed, with a skill above all rivalry, his favorite 
pas, the tamous saut de carpe (somer sault), which the spec- 
tators never tired of admiring. The Abbe himself belong- 
ed to the number of those who had undergone the curative 
convulsions. One of his legs was fourteen inches shorter 
than the other, — a defect however which did not interfere 



20 

with bis favorite dance. He declared* that the leg was 
lengthened, every three months, one line." 

" On the twenty seventh of January 1732 the cemetery 
was closed and the entrance walled up by order of the 
king." A distinguished, Jansenist lawyer, named Carre de 
Montgeron, going to the king to present the book he had 
written to demonstrate the truth of the miracles, was 
brutally arrested and thrown into prison, where he died 
after seventeen years imprisonment. The convulsionnaires 
were now treated with the greatest rigor, and, of course, 
thrived under it amazingly. Although tracked from street 
to street, driven from quartier to quartier, they increased in 
numbers. The chevalier Folard, distinguished for his con- 
tributions to military writings, was soon affiliated with 
them. His religion was nothing. Curious to observe the 
operations at Saint-Medard, he went to the cemetery. 
There, wounds received in war were cured, and seven days 
afterwards he was attacked with convulsions. He renounc- 
ed all his honors and expectations, and made the rest of 
his life a series of convulsions, associating only with those 
Who frequented the houses of convulsionnaires, or spending 
his time in prayer and reading books of devotion. 

The cemeteiy being closed, a new phase was assumed by 
this religious mania. Patients submitted their bodies to 
blows from hammers and bars of iron, to cuts with knives, 
upon the breast, abdomen, hips, and thighs; and the victims, 
instead of complaining, expressed their joy. The convulsion- 
naires believed themselves specially set apart for the general 
work of edification, and with the view of accomplishing 
this, in the best possible manner, adopted the brutal mal- 
treatment of their bodies, and those of their followers. 
They called the inhuman violences, to which they were 
subjected, secours. These were known either as petits 
secours, consisting in blows with the fist and small sticks 
of wood, stampings and other similar operations, — aud les 
grand secours or secours mcurtricrs which were of a more 
terrible character. They pretended that all this was re- 



21 

quired to aid in the restoration of a corrupt and gangrened 
church.* 

In 1741 the excitement seemed to have ceased in Paris, 
but in fact the convulsionnaires still existed, and eighteen 
years later, it was found the epidemic was raging in all its 
force. We are indebted to a report of La Condamine for 
an account of one of their exhibitions April 13, 1759, to 
which he had gained admission by a subterfuge. A num- 
ber of males and females had collected together in a cham- 
ber at Marais. Sister Francoise, the deanness of the con- 
vulsionnaires, was first beaten, on all parts of the body, with 
a bundle of chains weighing 8 to 10 pounds, by two men. 
This was followed by blows with sticks of wood, and being 
placed on her back on the ground the director walked over 
her several times. This woman was then nailed to a cross, 
and allowed to remain there for thee hours and a half. 
At the same time, a young proselyte, Sister Marie, was 
nailed to another cross and allowed to remain attached to 
it for half an hour. La Condamine remarks that " only 
girls and women have submitted to this cruel operation. 
Those who recognize in all this a good work, assert as a 
proof of the miracle that the victims do not suffer, and that 
on the contrary their torments are agreeable. This would 
be, indeed, a great prodigy. But I saw them give indica- 
tions of the keenest anguish, and the only astonishing fea- 
ture to which I can testify is the constancy and courage 
that fanaticism was able to inspire." The performances of 
the Hindoo devotees are not more sickening in their de- 
tails than these ; — the deluded worshipper at the shrine of 
Juggernaut does not resort to more horrible tortures than 
the convulsionnaires willingly exposed themselves to, in the 
name of Him who claims worship from the heart, and who 

* Elle est couche dans l'ordure et dans la poussiere, s'ecriait une con- 
vulsionnaire, les vers lui rongent la chair, la pourriture s'est mise jusque dans 
ses os, une odeur insupportable s'exhale sans cesse de la corruption qui l'en- 
veloppe. Venez done a sons secours, appliquez-y le fer et le feu, n'epargnez 
rien pour la guerir, coupez, tranchez, brnlez : il lui faut les remedes les plus 
violents." 

Doni. Lataste, Lettres Theologiques. Quoted by Figuier. 



22 

exhibits to his disciples the example of the publican, with 
his penitent cry for pardon, as that of one who " went 
down to his house justified" rather than the Pharisee who 
thanked God that he was not as other men. 

With the close of 1760 Paris was freed from this terrible 
form of religious mania, although the end was not then of 
the miraculous cures attributed to the deacon Paris. With 
our knowledge of the years required to uproot a supersti- 
tion from the hearts of the people, we may not be surpriz- 
ed to learn, that instances of miracles worked in the name 
of the deceased deacon are recorded as late as 1787, — and 
it may be that our own enlightened age has witnessed sim- 
ilar instances of delusion. Error is hydra-headed, — the re- 
moval of one head seems to give that stimulus which, in 
time, will cause another to shoot forth in fullest vigor. 

Figuier attempts an explanation of the singular phenom- 
ena we have briefly laid before our readers. Two things 
are required in order to make such an attempt successful; 
careful examination, 1st of the facts, 2nd their character 
whether natural or miraculous. And here again, let us 
not be too easy with our definition of what is miraculous. 
In one view, all nature is a miracle past the finding-out of 
man, — the human body, something calculated to excite our 
awe as well as admiration. Plow wondrous the law which 
keeps its manifold organs in harmonious relations to 
each other ! Why do the disturbing actions of natural 
causes not injure or destroy this harmony and thus bring 
about, that which we call, disease ? And when disease is 
raging, who can explain how all the mysterious harmonies 
of health are brought to play in happy accord again ? All 
this is a mystery, — yes, a mystery past finding out. We 
are still playing on the sea shore, — collecting the beautiful 
pebbles which the waves have cast up from the deep, but 
the boundless expanse of the unknown extends oil' into the 
distance. Let us learn humility. and reverently bow before 
the Omnipotence ofour Creator and Preserver. "Miracles," 
as has been stated by a writer in this Review (Vol. II. 
578), "must themselves be authenticated as genuine heaven- 



28 

3y miracles, by carrying in them proper spiritual contents, 
and hy being surrounded with proper spiritual connections 
and relations. They are of force, not abstractly and on the 
outside of the revelation or mission they are employed to 
prove, but concretely and in living union with this, as part 
and parcel of the whole." Judged by such a norm as this, 
all these miracles are dissipated as the morning clouds be- 
fore the light of the sun. But we can afford to examine 
these epidemic convulsions more closely, so as to get at 
their physiological cause. 

In examining the facts connected with the convulsionary 
epidemic, we must admit that cures were had of some of 
the numerous sick who crowded around the deacon's tomb. 
But these were very few indeed,- — only "iifteen or s<>x4e>en 
among the large number of devotees, whose exercises are 
narrated by Carre de Montgeron. These, however, are of 
such a character, that we do not require resort to the sup- 
position of a miracle to explain them. The only argument 
in favor of any connection between the cures and the visits 
to Saint-Medard, is that those occurred after the visit had 
been made and a neuvaine performed. The validity of the 
post hoc, ergo propter hoc argument has been exploded long 
since. Still this argument cannot be adduced, " since the 
cures took place very arbitrarily, sometimes before, some- 
times during and often even very long after the worship 
paid to the saint." No desperate cases were in fact ever 
brought to the notice of the saint, and some of the so-called 
cures proved to be deceptive as the relapses indicated. 
These induce us to believe that the diseases were often 
feigned. And some of the convulsions were voluntary 
imitations of those witnessed in the cemetery, as was ac- 
knowledged afterwards. 

Among the convulsionnaires there were some epileptics, 
— and involuntary imitation caused the semblance of this 
disease in some which may finally have really become the 
disease itself. "Watson, in his Practice of Medicine, quotes 
the following from Baglivi. Vidimus, anno 1670, in Dal- 
matia juvenem gravissimis correptum convulsionibus, prop- 



24 

terea quod inspexerat solummodo alinm juvenem dum 
epilepsia humi contorquebatur : and states that " there is 
no spectacle of horror so efficacious in producing a fit of 
epilepsy in others, as that of a person suffering under 
epilepsy." The symptoms, generally presented by these 
fanatics, were simply due to a species of nervous affection, 
which was either St. Vitus' dance, epilepsy or hysteria,— 
and the latter was probably the principal cause. The 
curative means recognized as proper for the latter were gen- 
erally efficient. Occasionally the adoption of purely moral 
treatment proved sufficient. At one time there was a sui- 
cidal epidemic in Milet, among the girls, and the town 
feared depopulation. It was checked by a decree, that 
/fe. ct m v y body ofsugirl who hung herself should be exposed 
naked in public, and then be dragged by a cord around 
the neck on a hurdle. The decree cured the disease. 

Boerhaave's cases at the Harlem hospital are known to 
medical men. All the female patients in one of the wards 
fell into convulsions in imitation of one naturally so affect- 
ed. He brought into the ward, a chafing dish full of live 
coals, and proceeded to heat a steel instrument red hot, 
announcing that he would burn the first patient who 
would have a convulsion. The result was — the disappear- 
ance of the disease. 

A word or two as to the cause of toleration of painful 
blows and cuts, which were altogether disproportionate to 
the feeble strength of those receiving them. " The power 
of resistance and the condition of insensibility seem to 
arise from the extreme changes in sensibility, which the 
exaltation of any passion will produce in the animal econo- 
my. Rage, fear, in a word, any passion, having reached 
its climax, can produce such insensibility. * * Moral ex- 
citement often extinguishes all sensibility. Soldiers with 
fatal wounds, have continued to fight, without suspecting 
their presence, until they have fallen dead. * * In Italy a 
fanatic having crucified himself his physician reports, that 
he suffered nothing from his wounds duri the religious 
delirium, although he experienced horrible sufferings when 



26 

reason had returned." From all the foregoing it will be 
readily concluded, with our author, that there was nothing 
in the convulsions and extacies of the Saint-Medard ceme- 
tery, which is inexplicable by the laws of medicine, phy- 
siology or psychology. 

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the spirit 
of persecution, evinced by the Eomanists, excited a species 
of religious fervor among the Protestants, which manifest- 
ed itself in erratic acts that entitle the "Protestant Pro- 
phets" to a notice in our retrospective of the marvellous in 
Modern Times. Louis XIV, in the midst of his debauches, 
was sometimes visited by compunctions of conscience and 
dreams of future punishment. His spiritual advisers sug- 
gested that he could ensure his own salvation by securing 
proselytes from the heretical reformers to the ranks of the 
Eoman Church, — and that the best way of accomplishing 
this was by means of money, — purchasing the poor. Un- 
der the direction of Cardinal Le Camus, this important 
business of bribery for religious purposes was carried on by 
Pellisson, an apostate Calvinist. Among the poor classes 
of Huguenots this plan, it is asserted, had some success. 
The medium price allowed did not exceed a crown of six 
liVres. The additions to the list of converts were shown to 
the king, every quarter, and the courtier, Pellisson, endeavor- 
ed to make the monarch believe that the whole world 
would yield either to his might or his benevolence. The 
king became more anxious to increase the church, and 
adopted every cruel plan suggested by the bigoted Roman- 
ists ; in 1680 twenty Protestant churches were destroyed 
in Vivarais. Children were allowed to abjure their religion 
at seven years of age ; and many were taken away from 
their parents in the provinces, simply because they had 
learned the Ave Maria from the servants, which was an 
evidence of their desire to abjure Protestantism. This act, 
so similar to that of the Mortara boy in Italy, which created 
so much excitement a few years since, was in violation of 
all the protection guarranteed by the Edict of Nantes. It 
was only the signal for persecutions in a thousand forms 



26 

each more ingenious than its predecessor. A regular system 
of compulsory retraction was established under the agency 
of Louvois, the minister. Bribes were changed for force. 
A dragoonade of the country, beginning at Beam — the 
birth-place of Henry of Navarre, was adopted and soldiers 
were employed as the missionaries of a religion professing 
to breathe peace and goodwill. Voltaire* thus speaks of 
the manner this dragoonade was begun : "An archbishop, 
an intendant, a pastor, or some one with authority march- 
ed at the head of the soldiers. The principal Calvinistic 
families, especially those considered most pliable, were as- 
sembled. Thes-e renounced their religion in the name of 
the others : the obstinate were delivered over to the sol- 
diers, who were allowed to do any thing with them but take 
their lives. Notwithstanding this, some were so cruelly 
treated that they died." 

Louis XIV, thinking to free his kingdom at once from 
heretics revoked the Edict of Nantes, October 22, 1685. 
The Chancellor Le Tellier signed the fatal measure, crying 
out with hideous joy, "nunc dimittis servum tuum &c." 
Bossuet expended his eloquence in a funeral oration on 
Le Tellier, prostituting it thus in a most disreputable man- 
ner. The Revocation caused a general migration. Fifteen 
hundred ministers left the country ! " Holding the Bible 
in one hand and their walking staves in the other, they set 
out for the different frontiers of the kingdom." These 
were followed b}^ their people, when the laws and ordi- 
nances of the king had become insupportable. For a Pro- 
testant to live in France at this period was a continuous 
martyrdom. "He could neither marry nor make a will; 
his children were considered bastards." All the liberal 
professions and municipal offices were interdicted. He 
was allowed only to be a laborer, mechanic or shepherd. 
Religious worship was prohibited. Death was the punish- 
ment for an Evangelical minister who remained in France; 
death for every one engaged in Protestant worship, or 
caught in a worshipping assembly. 

ir fhistoire gen<Srale. 



27 

This series of cruelties was established by the much be- 
praised Louis Quatorze, — "the most magnificent of the 
Bourbon kings." At length, the Calvinist peasants took 
arms and a religious war was the result, During this war 
the phenomena now to be noticed occurred. The pastors 
Lad said to their flocks, before leaving them, " Fear not : 
although we shall not be with you, the Spirit of the Lord 
will not desert you ; He will not cease to be in the midst 
of your assemblies, — He will speak through the mouths of 
women and children." These words were literally receiv- 
ed. Deprived of their churches, they assembled in the 
woods and mountain-fastnesses. Their preachers braved 
death to be with them. A religious zeal had been fostered 
by cruel persecution until a species of fanaticism, purely 
epidemic in its consequences, seized those who were thus 
hunted down under the ban of law. " The mountains and 
desert-places were peopled with phantoms for them, and 
resounded with revealed words." At Geneva, a school of 
prophecy was established, and Du Serre, a glassblower who 
had been ennobled, was there ordained prophet. He es- 
tablished a similar school, in 1689, in Dauphiny. Children 
were instructed in this school, by a regimen calculated to 
excite their imaginations in a morbid way, by long fast- 
ings, long sermons and the perusal of the Apocalypse. 
They soon acquired the power of entering an extatic con- 
dition, assuming singular positions. These were sent forth 
and constituted one party of the protestant Prophets. 

But, in the neighborhood of Castres, in 1686, demon- 
strations were also shown of the same spirit. Indeed we 
may see that this epidemic broke out in many different 
places, at about the same time. The same persecution fol- 
lowed the Protestants all over France; — they were subject 
to want and distress every where ; — the same intense reli- 
gious feeling existed with them all, — and the results were 
alike. A little shepherdess, 10 ten years of age, asserted 
that an angel appeared to her and forbade her to attend 
mass. This was soon noised abroad. The little spark 
speedily became a large fire. While a famous preacher, Cor- 



23 

biere was preaching, the assembly was surrounded and 
dispersed. The preacher being pursued described a circle 
around himself, and crying out, " Get thee behind me, 
Satan," the troop was so horrified that they were about 
retreating when their captain killed him with a pistol. 

Two of these prophets deserve special notice. Isabeau 
Vincent and Gabriel Astier. The first known as La belle 
Isabeau was the daughter of a wool-carder at Saou, in the 
diocese of Die. Being forced to leave her home, her god- 
father gave her an asylum, and the occupation of guard- 
ing his sheep. While engaged here, it is supposed, that 
one of the prophets, ordained by Du Serre, met her and that 
she became impressed with her mission. Commencing in 
obscure houses, her fame soon spread through Dauphiny. 
A young lawyer, Gerlan, became attached to her and fol- 
lowed her to the various assemblies, where she prophesied. 
The notes of her prophetic speeches are given in full, in 
the writers of this period. On his first visit, he describes 
her as " a young girl of small stature, irregular counte- 
nance, thin and browned by the wind, with a large fore- 
head, large gentle black eyes." At times she was not able 
to speak, and she would pray God to loose her tongue, so 
that she could speak to his people. Gerlan says, she spoke 
like an angel. At times she fell into so profound a lethar- 
gy that violent measures could not waken her to conscious- 
ness. In this condition, she would chant the psalms in a 
clear and intelligible voice. Afterwards she would im- 
provise prayers, recite long passages from the Scriptures, 
denounce the papists, and preach with considerable force. 
After the extacy had passed by, she did not recollect any 
thing that occurred. 

The reputation of La belle Isabeau was increased by the 
frequency of these lethargic states. Important conversions 
were made by her. Among the aristocracy of Dauphiny, 
Madame de Baix may be mentioned. She became also 
inspired, and communicated her inspiration to her daugh- 
ter. Madame de Baix was obliged to leave the province. 
She retired to a house on the left bank of the Rhone. 



29 

Here more than three hundred, who heard her, were seized 
with the same spirit of prophecy. Isabeau being seized 
by the Intendant, told the judges, who threatened her with 
punishment : " You may kill me ; but God will raise up 
other prophetesses who will speak better things than I." 

She was confined in a hospital, where the aristocracy 
contended for the honor of instructing, caring for and 
amusing her. But the confinement of La belle Isabeau 
was not ended by death, but by marriage with a gentleman 
of the region and — her preaching ceased. 

Gabriel Astier was one of the disciples of Du Serre. He 
communicated to his parents and sisters first the informa- 
tion, that the Spirit had been given him. He was obliged 
soon to fly from home, and after passing from place to 
place, he selected the Vivarais. Numerous proselytes were 
made on the road, who followed him to the mountains 
where the spirit of the Yaudois and Waldenses had left in- 
delible traces. He was said to have been a most extraor- 
dinary orator, at a time when much pulpit oratory was 
known. Figuier says " it seemed as though in all these 
towns (Saint- Cierge, Pranles, Saint-Sauveur, Tauzuc, Saint- 
Michel, &c, &c), there was no other care, no other want, 
but to hear the voice of the man whom they regarded as a 
messenger from God. The villages were too small to con- 
tain all who came to hear Gabriel, and it was necessary to 
hold religious assemblies in the open country, in spite of 
winds and snows." To these, all ages, sexes and condi- 
tions came ; in many instances, they remained days from 
home, following the prophet from mountain to mountain, 
subsisting simply on apples and nuts. 

William of Orange had been placed on the British throne 
and the French Protestants looked for relief from him. Ga- 
briel announced the day on which the Prince of Orange 
might be expected to arrive in France, w T ith an army of a 
hundred thousand men, as the exterminating angel of the 
Homan Church The houses of worship of the Catholics 
would then be demolished, and a star falling on Rome 
would consum the pontifical chair. It is remarkable amid 



30 

all this excitement, and the whirlwind of enthusiasm by 
which Astier was surrrounded, that he never counselled vio- 
lence. He and many prophets of this period, " were con- 
tent with preaching obedience to God rather than to the 
king, — assuring their hearers that the faithful had nothing 
to fear, for God would sustain and preserve them from the 
sabres and balls of the enemy." And this faith and trust 
in God seem to have been existing in all their followers. 
The Protestants were hunted down in all directions. Ga- 
briel had been in forty combats, but was finally taken at 
Montpellier and condemned to be broken alive on the 
wheel, — a punishment to which he submitted bravely, 
April 2, 1690. 

Vivens was another of the prophets. Pie was distin- 
guished for his stout and healthy body, intrepid and adven- 
turous spirit, and true courage. Induced to believe that 
the day of redress for the persecuted Protestants was at 
hand, he returned to France from Holland in 1689. He 
counselled resistance ; occupied himself with collecting 
arms, and fabricating powder and balls. He organized the 
first insurrection of Cevennes putting himself at the head 
of four hundred armed men. These were nearly all killed 
or taken prisoners at the first engagement. Vivens esca- 
ped, and retiring to a cavern, was kept advised of the 
movements of his brethren. Here he was joined by Brous- 
son, who was actuated with the same hopes, but who did 
not think of their realization by violent means. Brousson 
had been the protestant advocate, and was then an evan- 
gelical minister, who considered it as his duty to preach 
and even to die for his religion, but not to push disobe- 
dience to the king to the point of revolt. He believed that he 
had a mission to perform, but his unchanging sweetness he 
and deep aversion to violent measures made him a charac- 
ter pleasant to contemplate even at the present day. Brous- 
son was ordained a minister by Vivens, who had received 
ordination in Holland. "B. preached regularly three times 
a day ; attended to baptisms, marriages and deaths — all 
ceremonies equally sad in those times ; dictated forms of 



31 

prayers, pious manuals to be used by churches, who had 
no pastors." His life was spent in teaching rustic and al- 
most savage hearers, the gentlest notes of gospel truth, lying 
at night on the ground or a bed of dry leaves. Stealthily- 
creeping out of houses, to avoid searching parties, he was 
obliged often to take shelter in the wells, or on the roofs. 
At length he was arrested and condemned to death for 
complicity in Vivens' plans to introduce a foreign army 
into France, and the sentence was executed at Montpellier 
on the same day. Yivens was killed in a cavern by an 
apostate Jourdan, who shot him from behind. His body 
was afterwards burned, and in the flames his face seemed 
to threaten his executioners. 

The enthusiasm, which had been so excessive, was 
somewhat restrained by the deaths of the prominent pro- 
phets, the general slaughter of the people, and the peace of 
Kyswick. In 1700 a maiden lady carried the prophetic 
spirit to the Cevennes. She communicated the spirit to a 
few, and these to others^ until the prophets had become 
thousands. Women and children were peculiarly seized. 
Eight thousand were said to be affected this way in the 
Cevennes and lower Languedoc. A commission of phy- 
sicians was assembled to examine a number of these chil- 
dren, who had been imprisoned at Uzes. The commission 
did nothing but call the children fanatics, and expressed their 
wonder at seeing illiterate children quoting Holy Scripture 
most appropriately. Such an examination only increased 
the furor. Catholic children were seized with it and made 
" revelation's most compromising to their Church. Their 
extacies were not checked by menaces or punishment from 
their parents, * * who delivered the poor little creatures 
to the exorcisms of the cures. ]STo old Catholic was per- 
secuted on this account ; but the converts received orders 
to prevent their children from becoming fanatics." The 
accounts laid down by authors of the period are most in- 
credible, because they refer to children from fifteen months 
to three years of age, who were said to preach amendment 
of life to those around. Those who were sent to prevent 
them prophesying were often seized in the same way. 



32 

The inspiration then became communicated to families. 
Along with the gift of speech, that of second sight was 
said to be possessed by some. This was shown in predic- 
tions as to impending disasters, and directions as to the 
proper mode of avoiding them. There was one thing to be 
said of these prophets, which we were not able to affirm of 
the "possessed" ofLoudun, or the " convulsionnaires" of 
Saint-Medard, — "those who professed to have received the 
graces, immediately gave op all kinds of libertinage and 
vanity. Some who had been debauchees became sedate and 
pious." 

The increase of the prophets increased the meetings. 
These became more numerous ; daily and nightly they 
were held, despite the prohibition of laws. Some of the 
prophets began to labor under the strangest delusions. 
Daniel Raoul pretended that he was animated with the 
spirit of the prophet Daniel. He was sentenced to be 
broken on the wheel, and marched to the scene of his 
death, acknowledging Christ as his Saviour, and denounc- 
ing, as idolatry, the practices of the Roman Church. Per- 
secution could not diminish numbers, although it was 
pushed to the extreme. At Creux de Vaie so great was 
the massacre committed that, in addition to the killed, a 
bark and two wagons were filled with the wounded and 
sent to Montpellier. A prophet was among these with 
his four sons. He was hung, three of the sons were con- 
demned to the gallies and the fourth died in prison. 

Several women were gibbetted, because they ran about, 
crying " God has given us tears of blood to Weep for the 
desolation of Jerusalem," while drops of blood trickled 
from their eyes and noses. Prophecies now multiplied 
about some great coming event, the object of which would 
be the reestablishment of the Protestant religion. Abra- 
ham Maze], Solomon Couderc and Pierre Segaier, the great 
prophets of the mountains, began to predict that certain 
persons were destined to chastise the enemies of truth. 
These predictions and the increasing cruelty of the Catholic 
priests, brought on at last the general insurrection of the 



33 

Cevennes. The abbe Du Chayla figures with bloody no- 
toriety among his co-religionists. An attack was made on 
his chateau, under the direction of Esprit Seguier — le ter- 
rible prophete, by fifty three men, all singing on their march 
one of Marot's psalms. The chateau was burned, and Du 
Chajda, after refusing his life on the score of renouncing 
his religion, was killed. Each one of the party struck a 
blow, crying " this for my father whom thou didst destroy 
at the wheel." " this for my brother sent by thee to the 
gallies," " this for my mother, dead of grief occasioned by 
your persecution" &c., &c. The bloody massacre of the 
archpriest and his servitors was followed by prayers, offer- 
ed while kneeling around the dead bodies, and psalms. 

Seguier now destroyed the crosses and all the insignia of 
Catholicism in the churches. The torch was lighted and 
the whole region was exposed to the horrid devastations of 
a civil war. Seguier however, being seized, was burned 
alive, August 12, 1702. His place was soon filled by La- 
porte, who assumed the title of " Colonel of the children 
of God." He and his nephew had been soldiers in the 
king's army, and the military knowledge there acquired, 
with the extatic inspirations they claimed, gave them pecu- 
liar power. Churches were burned on all sides. Laporte 
Senior was killed at the head of his troop. His nephew 
Roland became the chief leader of the religious insurrec- 
tionists, under the title of "General of the children of God." 
He organized his army in five legions, properly divided. 
The army was singularly supplied with arms. " Their 
guns were unlike in form and calibre ; the sabres, pikes, 
bayonets and swords were of all varieties." Each chief of 
a legion governed with absolute authority, and celebrated 
religious worship in his camp, baptized and performed 
marriage services. His commands were looked upon as 
orders from God. But we cannot go further in detail as 
to the circumstances of this religious war. It was bloody 
in the extreme. Each side, animated with religious fanati- 
cism, destroyed those of the other party in the most ruthless 
manner. Finally a treaty was had at i^imes between Cava- 

3 



S4 

Her, the young Protestant general, and Marshall Villars, 
which allowed not the religious liberty for which they had 
been contending, but that Cavalier should be received as 
Colonel in the French army with a regiment of his men to 
be employed in the war on the Rhine and in Spain. Im- 
munity for past deeds had been granted, but this was not 
what actuated Roland, and he rejected, with contempt, the 
treaty of Nimes. "You are foolish," said the bold pro- 
phet leader to the young chief, "you have forgotten that 
you are not the general; you have betrayed your brethren 
and should die with shame. You are nothing more than 
a vile a^ent of the Marshal. Go tell him, that I am deter- 
mined to die sword in hand for the entire reestablish men t 
of the Edict of Nantes." Finally Roland was calmed, and 
he wrote a letter to the Marshal stating the true conditions 
of peace. The prophet Salomon and Cavalier were the 
bearers of this letter, — the former declared the children of 
the Lord would not lay down their arms, unless free ex- 
ercise of their religion was allowed them. The conference 
was broken up by the Marshal in a rage. Cavalier found 
the camp in full revolt against him. Ravanel, one of his 
principal officers taunted him with being a coward and a 
traitor. The officers cried "no peace without liberty of con- 
conscience, and the return of our pastors, the reconstruc- 
tion of our churches." The general was sounded, and the 
troops formed to start out again for the continuation of the 
war. Cavalier followed, begging and entreating them to 
change the plan, but to no purpose. The soldiers received 
his prayers in silence, and Ravanel with insult and sarcasm. 
Each drew his pistol on the other. The prophet Moise 
prevented the fratricidal contest. Cavalier at last bade 
adieu to his comrades and left them in disgrace. His his- 
tory is told in few words. He became a colonel in the 
French army, was received at Versailles with honors, soon 
attached himself to the Dutch army, and finally died in the 
British service us a Major-general and Governor of the 
island of Jersey. 

The brigade now under the command of Ravanel was 



surprised at Marjevols and suffered the loss of two hundred 
men. But the close of the whole war was due to the death 
of Roland, by treachery. He was surprized at the Chateau 
of Castelnau, where he had been visiting Mile de Cornelli, 
for whom he had a species of piatonic love; endeavoring to 
escape he was killed by a ball from a carbine. 

We close this portion of our article with an extract from 
Figuier: ". Thus perished, at the age of thirty, he who had 
given to the Cenevole insurrection its regular organization, 
and had held in check, with three thousand peasants, two 
French Marshals and an army of sixty thousand men. 
Roland Laporte, General of the Children of God, says 
Peyrat, united the indomitable tenacity of Coligny and the 
useful and sombre enthusiasm of Cromwell. Being pos- 
sessed of the stormy element of extacy, he made it the 
foundation and rule of an insurrection, which he organ- 
ized, nourished, clothed, sheltered, for two years in the 
desert, despite the rage of men and seasons ; contended 
with three thousand combatants, against hostile people, 
sixty thousand armed men, the Marshals of Louis XIV, 
and finally was only overcome by defection, treachery and 
death. What obscure man could, with such feeble means, 
attempt with more energy, a more gigantic effort ? The 
insurrection, created by him, died with him ; he was its 
intellect, — its soul. But if he was the head, Cavalier was, 
so to speak, the arm and the most valiant sword. Eoland 
had not that dash (elan), that adventurous, inspired impet- 
uosity, that rash and chivalric bravery, which, added to the 
charms of youth, made Cavalier the most graceful and 
heroic figure of the desert. Roland, of a more mature age, 
a more manly character, had also more solid and more per- 
fect characteristics. By nature possessing calmness united 
with passion, cunning with boldness, calculation with en- 
thusiasm. A man of intellect, rather than action, he ac- 
cepted, without seeking them, the combats which were ne- 
cessary, leaving to Cavalier the glory of sterile and bloody 
assaults. His victories inspired, as it seemed, the young 
lieutenant with the cnlpable ambition of usurping the suj 



36 

preme command. Roland preserved this, and not only did 
not take revenge,' but selected him as his means of com- 
munication with Villars, and, even after his defection, wish- 
ed to reconcile him with his brigade. Cavalier appeared in- 
dispensable to his triumph. "What a deplorable recompense 
for human actions : faithlessness conducted Cavalier to for- 
tune and celebrity ; Roland, incorruptible, sealing his cause 
with his blood, only obtained an obscure martydom."* 

Had Roland lived, the insurrection might have attained 
its much desired end. Ravanel, Castanet and some others 
were arrested, April 18, 1705 ; the two were fastened back 
to back and burned alive. The insurrection was practically 
at an end. 

The general communication of the tendency to prophecy 
seemed to depend on some general influence, which af- 
fected the whole protestant population at the same time. 
This was particularly to be noticed with reference to all 
those who belong to the Du Serre period. The prophets 
became strong powers when the theocratic army was or- 
ganized. The Chiefs of this army were selected in ac- 
cordance with the degree they were enjoying the com- 
munication of the spirit. But after the army was dis- 
banded, certain of the prophets repaired to London (Jean 
Cavalier (de Sauve), Elie Marion and Durand Fage may 
here be mentioned), and excited much curiosity by their 
convulsions and extatic crises. Elie Marion founded a 
school of prophecy there. He was surrounded by a phalanx, 
divided into twelve tribes, after the manner of the Israel- 
ites. The English, however, being uneasy about this mys- 
tical religion, expelled them, from the country. 

Let us look upon this religious epidemic carefully, so as 
to see whether physiological and psychological laws wil[ 
explain the extatic illuminism, which certainly existed in 
so wonderful a form. In the greater number of cases, it 
consisted in intermittent attacks, and, in the intervals, the 
mental and bodily health did not appear much injured. 



* Figuier. L'Histoirc da Mcrveilleux. II, 389. 



37 

An attempt has been made to explain what the French call 
iheomanie extatique des calvinistes by the supposition that 
hysteria or epilepsy were the causes. Figuier very pro- 
perly thinks that neither affection will explain it, but that 
it was a disease sui generis. The facts seem to require such 
a conclusion. 

The crisis came on as follows : after an exciting sermon, 
directing the mind to the persecution of the Church, the 
individual loosing consciousness of external objects, became-' 
a prey to high cerebral exaltation, At the end of a short 
time he fell to the ground, and was there, seized with an 
epileptiform attack, the whole body was shaken and the 
muscles were convulsed. The convulsive agitations di- 
minished, and then disappeared, being followed by calm- 
ness, when the individual arose and delivered his discourse, 
the burden of which was always the truths of the Protes- 
tant faith, the errors of Rome, and the re-establishment of 
their own churches. These discourses were delivered in 
the French ofLanguedoc, and began always with "I tell 
thee, my child ; 1 assure thee, my child." It was assumed that 
the Holy Spirit was really the speaker. When the discourse, 
was concluded, the prophet resumed his ordinary manner, 
rarely recollecting what he had, said. 

The extatic condition was sometimes excited by insuffla- 
tion of a prophet. After he had finished his discourse, he 
approached the neophytes considered as fit candidates, 
breathed in the mouth of one and said, Receive the Holy 
Spirit. The novice went through the various stages, just 
described, and, after he had prophecied, breathed in turn 
in the mouth of another, and so the process went on, un- 
til all the chosen candidates were admitted. Often this 
condition of extatic convulsion was brought on a whole as- 
sembly, simply by an order or command from the prophet. 

The incidents connected with the children attacked, show 
how the pliable thoughts of the young may be turned in 
any direction. "The sons and daughters of the Cevenese 
Protestants heard nothing but religious conversation, or 
biblical invocations destined to console them in their mis- ■ 



38 

fortunes as persecuted religionists. Hence the same ideas 
and words quite naturally proceeded from the months of 
these children when they were a prey to the crises raging in 
their country." The elegant language employed was simply 
that which they had heard from the prophets. 

During the extatic crises, they were insensible to phys- 
ical pain, exhibiting a similar condition to that found 
among the Jansenist convulsionnaires, and already mention- 
ed in this article. 

With all this, there was an epidemic character. Catho- 
lics were some times seized, and when they obeyed — their 
discourses were denunciatory of. the mass : their children 
always spoke in the language of the prophets when they 
were seized. Protestants who desired the extacies of their 
brethren were seized in the same way. Many came to scoff 
and went away prophets. 

Hallucinations were common. " In the belief that they 
were invulnerable, they precipitated themselves" into the 
midst of the fight. They saw the most celebrated martyrs 
of their faith, and heard delightful concerts in the air. 

From all these facts the conclusion is drawn that "this 
was a special epidemic disease of the nervous system. The 
causes producing it w T ere evidently the long sufferings and 
excess of misfortune to which the Protestants of the South 
were exposed for a long series of years. * * Despair ex- 
cited the brain, and delirium with an epileptiform affection, 
was added to the other ills." 

Considerable similarity is found between these and the 
actions of the Anabaptists of the 16th century, and much 
analogy with those convulsions of the Saint Medard Jan- 
senists. We cannot deny the evidence furnished us in 
either case, — and where mere physiological explanations can 
satisfy our minds as to their cause, we have no need to ad- 
mit the special miraculous character which has been ac- 
corded them. Such religious epidemics may be expected 
whenever the Church has become so cold and lifeless, as to 
leave absolute latitude to all, or so intolerant as to establish 
persecutions. A\ r e think illustrations of what we are stating 



89 

could be found within the century now passing away. 
It would be a subject for astonishment, if a bird's eye view 
could be furnished of moral and religious epidemics, be- 
longing to this century, but which have only differed from 
those referred to in this article, in degree but alas ! not in 
kind. To put this subject in its proper light would be 
doing a service to the age. Who will go forward in the 
path, so well-marked out by the author of the tract on the 
Anxious Bench ? 

We had hoped to have noticed Figuier's article on the 
divining rod, but we must forbear. It may be that we shall 
take up that subject in another article. For the present 
we shall be content if our readers will have learned how 
u at different epochs almost identically the same diseases, 
delirium, and manifestations may occur, and how a super- 
stitious spirit or a love of the marvellous will make haste to 
give them a supernatural character." The human race 
has always yearned for the supernatural. Says Bushnell, 
" Men can as well subsist in a vacuum, or on a metallic 
earth, attended by no vegetable or animal products, as the} 7 
can stay content with mere cause and effect, and the end- 
less cycle of nature. They may drive themselves into it, 
for the moment, by their speculations ; but the desert is 
too dry, and the air too thin — they cannot stay. Accord- 
ingly, we find that just now, when the propensities to mere 
naturalism are so manifold and eager, they are yet instiga- 
ted in their eagerness itself by an impulse that scorns all 
the boundaries of mere knowledge and reason ; that is, by 
an appetite for things of faith, or a hope of yet fresher 
miracles and greater mysteries — gazing after the Boreal 
crown of Fourier, and the thawing out of the poles under 
the heat of so great felicity to come ; or w T atching at the 
gate of some third heaven to be opened by the magnetic 
passes, or the solemn incantations of the magic circles ; 
expecting an irruption of demons, in the name of science, 
more fantastic than even that which plagued the world in 
the days of Christ." A provision was made to satisfy this 



40 

desire after the supernatural in the mysteries of the Chris- 
tian faith, which are to be received as communicated, and 
not to be warped to suit our own purposes. St Paul's in- 
junction is of value now, as well as eighteen hundred years 
ago : Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good. 



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